Regional Budget Coordinator, Central Africa

Background:

Over the past 90 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster.

The International Rescue Committee is a global network with its headquarters in New York. The IRC is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief, relocating refugees and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster.

The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.

The Awards Management Unit:

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global department with the responsibility for identifying, securing, and managing all funding from statutory/government donors. The department includes the following teams: Program and Award Support, Strategic Partnerships, Compliance and Policy, Business Development, Planning and Strategic Operations, and Training.

The AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to the country teams, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance and manage risk. This unit ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently, and supports all staff working across the award management cycle.

The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department:

The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department has a growing portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs under their remit. This work focuses support in five key areas: ensuring safety from harm, improving health, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being and ensuring people have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. In all these programs, there is a drive to address the unique needs of women and girls (who represent the majority of those displaced) – and the universal barriers they face.

The CRRD works across 6 regions globally, including West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The regional teams are the links between country offices and key HQ departments and aim to support and provide advice to country programs with a range of issues from strategic planning, business development to compliance, awards management and partnerships management. Each region is managed by a regional team that oversees the region’s country programs, headed by a Regional Vice President (RVP) and Deputy Regional Director (DRD), and supported by a Director, Awards Management (DAM).

The Purpose of the Role:

The Central Africa Region has a portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs currently in the following countries: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania.

Where additional support is required by the countries in the region, the Regional Budget Coordinator is deployed to work as part of the finance/budgeting and grants teams in country offices. S/he may be deployed to act as a temporary Budget Coordinator, or to provide surge support to assist in the development of proposals as well as donor financial reports, and to perform general budgeting functions during peak periods. The Regional Budget Coordinator may also be requested to cover for a Finance role, including Deputy Finance Director in a country program or may take on standard regional budget review responsibilities when not deployed.

Scope and Authority:

No line management unless required by the Deputy Director of Finance when deployed in-country.

Key Working Relationships:

The Regional Budget Coordinator reports to the SPAA and works closely with Finance, Programs, Grants and Partnerships teams in country, the Regional Finance Director, the Regional Program and Award Support (RPAS) and other AMU team members, as well as country office and regional staff.

Key Responsibilities:

The Regional Budget Coordinator is deployed (remote or in-person) to support specific country programs and may be responsible for the following, as assigned:

Proposal and modification budgeting and financial reporting

• Lead or support on budget development for proposals, award modifications and financial reports.
• Coordinate on inputs into proposal or modification budgets for submission to donor and ensure adequate coverage of country operating costs or headquarters costs.
• Work with country finance, operations and technical teams to ensure cost proposals and technical proposals are aligned.
• Coordinate with the proposal team on strategic issues involving proposal budgets. Ensure the proposal and modification budgets comply with IRC organizational policies and donor requirements.
• Reviews, edit and finalize explanatory budget narrative to accompany budget in proposal, modification, or financial reports.
• Review countries’ cost allocation budget tools.
• Create and/or modify budget spreadsheet templates in accordance with donor requirements.
• Lead internal budget reviews during proposal or modification period, as well as financial reports when requested.
• Lead on engagement with partners on their budgets and review partner budgets and reports.
• Advise on IRC’s standard budget templates and donor reporting templates.
• Ensure proposal and modification budgets are reviewed and submitted according to internal timelines and donor submission deadlines.
• Ensure compliance with RFP/RFA/tender requirements.
• Lead on or support the preparation of donor financial reports.
• Support on other budget related tasks, including audit support and report responses, as requested.
• Support on re-coding and/ or fixing financial reporting issues in collaboration with Finance.
• Provide support in developing pricing contract budgets for donors.
• Review budgets (proposal, modification, and report) from a regional approver perspective, when not deployed.
• Support on other financial management areas, as requested by the RFD.

Financial monitoring

• Standardize and lead on the roll out of guidance for delivering effective budget versus actual meetings.
• Support the development and roll out of spending plan templates for IRC and partners to ensure use of adequate tools for monitoring spending.
• Support financial analysis of Project Cycle Meeting (PCM) routines.

Capacity building and training

• Provide training and/or capacity building to relevant country office staff on proposal budget development, financial reporting, and monitoring.
• Onboard new country office Finance staff on finance related matters especially on proposal budget, budget monitoring, budget modification and other IRC processes.
• Mentor in-country finance team in the use of Integra to ensure budgets are accurately uploaded and financial monitoring is happening.
• Provide support in troubleshooting and liaise with Integra team to find solutions.
• Sharing learning across the region in relation to the implementation of the cost allocation methodology, Integra and financial monitoring.

Other finance duties as assigned and/or when deployed as a senior finance role in-country (to be agreed by line manager)

• If deployed to cover a Finance role, perform the routine finance duties of the deployment role such as management of the finance team, support in month-end processes and audits.

• Support country programs on operating budget and reforecast processes as requested.

• Support in the review and feedback of country program FM01s, as requested.

• Support country program to develop strategies to optimize budgets and spending.

• Provide financial analysis, reports, and strategic feedback to facilitate high-level decision-making by functional and Regional/Country management.

• Oversee spending patterns and implementing measures to promote adherence to budgets and ensuring assigned departments are maintaining budget methodologies to ensure good financial standing of organization.

• Coordinate data and understand business requirements to build and maintain templates and models to enable budget and forecast processes.

• Support country program in the development of the annual budgeting and forecasting process.

• Generate and analyze monthly actuals reports and identify risks and opportunities.

• Identify and implement opportunities to use IRC’s financial data and systems to improve modeling, reporting and analytics capabilities.

• Support the continued development and implementation of software and systems such as Integra,

• Provide ad hoc finance decision support on critical initiatives, including the development of business cases for new projects or funding areas.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

Skills, Knowledge, and Qualifications:

• Degree (minimum BA) in Business, Accounting, Finance, or related field relevant to the position requirements
• 5-7 years’ experience in developing and managing budgets for humanitarian and development proposals and projects, including from private and statutory donors, e.g. US Government (USAID, OFDA, BPRM, etc.), FCDO, ECHO, GFFO, Sida, SDC, Irish Aid
• Experience in developing and reviewing donor financial reports
• Excellent Microsoft Excel skills
• Enhanced interpersonal skills and ability to work in a diverse team setting
• Fluent English and French written and verbal communication skills
• Ability and willingness to travel across the region (up to 60% of the time)
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize high volumes of work to meet tight deadlines